


verum aqua

by hanaleibae (13th_blackbird)



Category: H2O: Just Add Water
Genre: F/F, Future Fic, Post-Series, Season 1 Compliant Only
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 11:45:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12770394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13th_blackbird/pseuds/hanaleibae
Summary: It's not so magical, being a mermaid in your twenties. Rikki and Emma meet up for a full moon night and some hard-won truths.





	verum aqua

It had been exactly 6 months since Rikki had last heard from Emma when she got the message:

_It didn’t take. He’s moving out this weekend._

Rikki stared at her phone, fighting the urge to text back ten varieties of “I told you so.” It beeped at her:

_Are you still angry at me?_

Rikki could see Emma staring at her own screen, standing in an immaculate kitchen as Steve shoved clothes into a suitcase in the next room.

 _No, of course not,_ Rikki sent back, already regretting it.

The answer came immediately: _can you make it to the island in time?_ The next full moon was a week away.

No, of course she couldn’t, Rikki thought. God, Emma was still so selfish. Rikki had a job, she had a life, she couldn’t just leave that because Emma had fucked _her_ life up beyond repair.

_Yes. I’ll bring the tequila._

There was no answer.

 

 

Just before Rikki’s flight out of Melbourne, Cleo called. She and Lewis were somewhere off the coast of Fiji, studying a rare phytoplankton with supposedly miraculous curative properties. The picture stopped and stuttered and the audio was just as bad, but Rikki could see her looking tan and happy on the deck of their research vessel, looking like some kind of m—-well, some kind of creature out of myth.

“It’s so _sad,_ Rikki!” Cleo said, sounding on the verge of tears herself.

“It’s not sad, it’s predictable.”

“You guys should come out and visit us. It wouldn’t take you long to get out here if you swam.”

“No offense, but I think that seeing you two is the last thing Emma’s going to want right now.”

“Oh, we’re not that bad— _-Lewis!”_ Cleo broke off in a squeal as the man in question obviously grabbed her ass just off screen.

“Hello, Rikki! Looking sarcastic as usual!” Lewis was still always so goddamn cheerful. And he had really grown into that face of his over the years, which made her curse him all the more. He and Cleo had done their annoying puppy-love dance all through uni, then run off together immediately once their Ph.D.s were finished. They wrote and published a lot of articles in the marine biology journals, most of which were highly detailed accounts of arcane dolphin sex practices. Rikki preferred not to think about their research methods. At least plankton reproduced asexually.

“Lewis, this is girl talk here, all right?”

His face got uncharacteristically serious under his stupid floppy hat. “You’re going to go see her, then? Will you tell her I’m sorry? I honestly thought it might work this time. I had the best guys on it at the University, and we—“

Rikki felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes and wished he were here so she could punch him. Thank god for the shitty connection for once. “It’s not your fault, yeah? I’m sure she doesn’t think so either.”

“Tell her we love her. I’d be there too if I could,” Cleo said.

“Sure,” Rikki said, and ended the call.

 

 

Mako Island was still untouched after all this time. There had been a close call with a timeshare firm—-that had _mysteriously_ had all its survey boats sunk and whose VP of development had checked himself into a mental ward after the incident, still screaming about a sea monster. Rikki still had the local articles tucked away somewhere. That had at least been fun.

She lay on the beach, steam-drying her tail away and drinking tequila straight from the bottle. The sky was resolutely overcast, and if the moon wasn’t going to show, they’d have to do this the old-fashioned way — get drunk enough to maintain plausible deniability.

Was Emma even going to show up? Rikki knew she hadn’t let herself transform in at least a year. Would she even remember how to get here? What if that dickhead Steve came crawling back, asking for another chance, and she actually gave him one? That flight from Melbourne hadn’t been cheap.

“Started without me, did you?” Emma looked the same as always as she slid onto the sand next to Rikki. A little paler, maybe, and Rikki didn’t think her red eyes had anything to do with salt water.

“Wasn’t sure if you’d make it.” Rikki handed the bottle to her, while extending a hand to dry Emma off. Emma took a swig of tequila and made a horrified face at her.

“Hey, you don’t know anything about liquor. You thought I’d waste the good stuff on you?” Rikki said.

Emma rolled her eyes. There was a sound as their tails disappeared, and Rikki sighed and rolled onto her back. Still no moon. “So, you want to talk about it?”

“Ugh. Not really.” There was a long silence. Emma would talk eventually, at length if Rikki knew her, she wouldn’t have come out here if she wasn’t going to. Rikki could wait. She closed her eyes and listened to the slight breeze stir the palms, the water crashing on the rocky beach. She missed the beach when she was in Melbourne, she missed the water, missed feeling her tail, so much power behind her. Cleo had the right idea, not even trying to blend in.

“He said he wouldn’t waste his life with someone who could never be the mother of his children.” Emma’s voice was uncharacteristically small, and Rikki did not, definitely did not, want to turn around to see her with tears in her eyes again. She kept her eyes on the cloudy night sky.

“That guy is and always has been a huge asshole. I don’t know what else you expected from him, and thank god Lewis’s serum didn’t work. I couldn’t have stood watching him warp little baby Emmas for the next twenty years,” She’d meant that to sound a lot more gentle, or at least sarcastic. The tequila must have been kicking in. _Good job, Rikki,_ she thought, as she heard Emma start sniffling to herself.

She counted her breaths to herself for a moment, resolutely not thinking of another full moon night on this beach, and what she’d been hoping this night would turn into. Emma was her best friend. Emma needed her. “Hey—-sorry, Emma.” Silence. “Lewis says he’s sorry it didn’t work. He had his best guys on it.” 

Emma was pressing her hands over her eyes, as if she could force the tears back in. “I know. It’s all right. At least a lot of good came out of it.”

“Drink more,” Rikki ordered. “Fuck that. You can still be sad that it didn’t do what it was supposed to.”

Rikki had finally given Lewis a blood sample when Emma had so much trouble conceiving, but still refused to be outed by going to an actual doctor. And Steve had forbidden it; he didn’t want anyone to know what a freak his perfect wife was.

As it turned out, their unique cells and their strange mutability had had unbelievable effects on all kinds of research, from aging and Alzheimer's to cancer cures. Lewis and a cohort of carefully chosen scientists knew the truth, everyone else thought the cells were from a previously undiscovered deep sea animal similar to a jellyfish, since that was the closest genetic similarity. (“A jellyfish? I’m insulted,” she’d said. Lewis had shrugged at her.) And as far as that group knew, Rikki was the only sometimes-mermaid in the world. The others could still keep their secret.

“How do you deal with it? Knowing you’ll never have kids?” Emma was looking a little dreamily at her, a sure sign that the alcohol was kicking in. Rikki was finally feeling it too. _Where’s that damn moon? We’re getting into the feelings talk here._

“You know I don’t care, Emma, I’d be a terrible mother. And this way I get to fuck whoever I want without worrying about my kids having flippers or something.” 

“What about Cleo?” Emma persisted.

“She’d put a baby in a life preserver or a lobster trap or whatever while she and Lewis studied dolphin foreplay. You know I love them, but they aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, Ph. D’s or no. Horrible environment for a child.”

“Rikki, you’re _terrible_!” Emma was bright red with embarrassment, but at least she was smiling. 

“I know, I’m such a bitch. Good thing I moved to Melbourne so you only have to put up with me when you feel like it.” She’d meant that to come out light and sarcastic, but it sounded way too bitter out loud.

“That’s not it at all,” Emma said quietly. The breeze picked up again, and Rikki’s heart pounded against her ribs.

Emma rolled over on the sand so they were facing each other, finally, and brushed a strand of Rikki’s hair away from her face. A thousand reasons why this was not a good idea were racing through Rikki’s head: she’s in pain, we’re drunk, this almost made us hate each other last time, she doesn’t even really want _me_ like this at all, she’s not even into women…

It didn’t matter. It had been inevitable since she’d read Emma’s text. She couldn’t have said no. She stroked Emma’s cheek, still red and blotchy from crying, and kissed her, gentle and sweet. It was never gentle for Rikki except with Emma. This girl that had always been so uptight, that Rikki had seen crushed so many times in her pursuit of a perfect life that could never exist: she couldn’t bear to hurt her, even by accident.

“I know you didn’t mean it like that,” Rikki murmured in Emma’s ear, tracing a line of light kisses along her jaw. Emma shivered, fumbling to get her hands on Rikki’s skin.

And the moon took that moment to reveal itself.

It had been years since their first transformations, they’d been through dozens of full moons, and it rarely affected them the same way twice. What had been mortifying when they were teenagers had transmuted, like their bodies, into something so pure and clear that Rikki never missed being near water on a full moon night. Everything was sharp, heightened, honest, _real_ in a way that life never was. And it was never complicated.

On a full moon night, what you wanted, you got. 

Rikki undressed Emma, slowly. Odd that they’d even bothered to dress, she thought, but she supposed they were still maintaining the pretense that they hadn’t come out here just for sex. Emma reached for Rikki at every opportunity, but Rikki pushed her hands away.

“I know what you need, Emma,” she said, not to seduce but because it was true. Emma let out a shaky breath, eyelids fluttering closed. She nodded and lay back on the sand. Her pale skin gleamed in the moonlight. Rikki could see her pulse shivering in her neck. She kissed it delicately, traced Emma’s breasts lightly with her fingertips. Emma trembled under her light touches, arching against her. “Rikki…”

Rikki smiled wickedly. “What is it, Emma?”

“Please…” Her voice was so quiet, almost lost in the crashing of the waves on the shore. Rikki didn’t let her finish her plea, and the two of them moved together in the sand, heedless of anything except each other. Rikki watched as she stroked Emma’s clit, her friends’s bright eyes closed in pleasure, the moonlight strobing her pale skin. She shook as she came, and Rikki smoothed her hand over Emma’s face. “I’m here,” she murmured. “I’m here, Emma.”

She pulled Emma close to her, protective, curling up on the warm sand, eyes on the moon-washed sky. “Rikki, I—“ Emma said, into her neck. “Thanks for flying out here.”

Rikki wanted to say something sarcastic, wanted to bite back _just don’t take him back this time, then,_ but instead she pressed a kiss to the top of Emma’s head. “I hate seeing you hurt,” she whispered, instead, surprising herself.

“You must think I’m pathetic,” Emma said, voice still muffled. “I just—I thought I did everything _right_ , you know? The way my parents wanted me to, and I just…” She shuddered, and Rikki pulled her closer. This was different from the last time. Emma didn’t usually talk this much, and Rikki hardly wanted to breathe, much less interrupt and stop this, whatever it was. “You’re so—you always do what _you_ want,” Emma laughed. “I mean, you always have. I wish I was like that. I don’t know what I want,” Emma finished.

“You could come with me,” Rikki said. “I mean, you could come to Melbourne for a while, get away from everything…not, you know, _with me.”_ She stopped. “And I don’t think you’re pathetic, Emma. I think you’re one of the strongest people I ever met. I wish you could see you the way I do.” _Shut up,_ she told herself. She was getting way too close to saying something she wouldn’t be able to take back, and then it would all really be ruined. Fucking full moon.

The silence extended longer than it should. 

Rikki’s stomach twisted. She’d ruined it. Well, she was leaving tomorrow anyway. Emma would be all right, she always was. She turned toward the other woman and pulled her into another kiss, long and slow, and Emma gradually relaxed against her. _Might as well pretend it’s fine,_ Rikki thought.

 

 

Rikki woke up a little after sunrise, and Emma was gone. She tried to tell herself that she’d expected it, and she had, but it still hurt. She swam back to the mainland, trying to enjoy the freedom of it the way she had the previous day.

Emma was waiting for her in the lobby of her hotel. Holding a suitcase. 

“Hi,” Emma said. She blushed. “Um, sorry for leaving this morning. I wanted to go for a swim, clear my head, you know…”

“Uh,” Rikki tried.

“I want to go with you. I mean, _with_ you, with you,” Emma said. “I think that’s what you were asking.” She sounded like the old Emma. Confident, always the leader, the planner.

“Yeah, I was,” Rikki said, dazed. “What—“

“I realized it, last night,” Emma said. “Rikki…I see you the way you see me. And I’ve wasted enough time trying to be someone I’m not,” She laughed, trying to keep it light, but there was worry in her eyes. “I haven’t let myself go out in a full moon in a long time. I think…I was worried I’d realize more than I wanted to.”

Rikki finally realized what Emma was trying to say. She grinned.

“Oh no, I recognize that look,” Emma groaned. “Whatever you’re planning, I—“

Rikki kissed her. “I love you, too,” she murmured in Emma’s ear. “And fuck Melbourne. Let’s go for a swim — a real one. Surprise some dolphin scientists I know. Want to?”

Emma looked around the hotel lobby, smoothed her hair down, and smiled. “With you? Yeah, I do.”

 


End file.
